The Sam’s Club store on Dimond Boulevard in Anchorage. Sam’s Club, a unit of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., closed a series of stores nationwide, including all Alaska Sam’s Club stores, it said on Thursday, Jan. 11, 2017. (Loren Holmes / ADN)

Sam's Club stores in Alaska are set to close this month, a company spokeswoman said Thursday.

The closures are part of a nationwide shuttering of 63 Sam's Club locations, parent company Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said in a statement Thursday.

Sam's Club is a membership-based chain owned and operated by Walmart and has three locations in Alaska. Delia Garcia, a Walmart spokeswoman, confirmed that all of those locations will have their last day of operations Jan. 26. Employees were notified Thursday.

"We're actively managing our portfolio in Sam's just as we are in Walmart," Garcia said. "This is a decision we made based on what we need to do to maintain a healthy business going forward."

Alaska's remote location was one part of the decision to close the stores here.

"The cost of operating the clubs in Alaska is very high," Garcia said. "Because of the distance from our distribution hub, that was certainly a factor."

On average, Garcia said, each Sam's Club location has about 150 employees.

Workers will be paid for 60 more days starting Thursday, she said, and those who don't transfer to a Walmart store at the end of that time frame will receive severance.

The company will convert up to 12 of the closing Sam's Club locations into e-commerce fulfillment centers, Walmart said in its statement. Garcia said the company doesn't know yet where all those centers will be.